Written Answers

Wednesday 27 September 2000

Scottish Executive

Advocacy

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has any plans to help extend the availability of advocacy projects.

Iain Gray: Advocacy is central to the Executive’s vision of a new era of a modernised health and social care service. Our commitment has been clearly demonstrated by the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and our recent review into services for people with learning disabilities. To ensure its availability for all who need it, we have been consulting on guidance designed to assist the development of local independent, integrated advocacy services across Scotland. This should be published in November along with the Health Plan for Scotland.

  We also provided financial support to a national advocacy conference that took place earlier this year, support that will continue in future years. At that conference I announced that we will require health boards to work in partnership with NHS Trusts, local authorities and other agencies in their area to put in place independent advocacy services which address the needs of local people. I expect these services to be in place within 12 months of the issue of the guidance. We have also funded Scottish Human Services to employ an Advocacy Development Officer to support this local work.

Bridges

Mr Murray Tosh (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what its intentions are in relation to VAT on bridge tolls and in particular whether commitments by Her Majesty’s Treasury to pay for tolls from Government funds will apply to Scotland, whether any comparable commitment in Scotland would have to be funded by the Executive, and whether the Executive is committed to ensuring that bridge users in Scotland are treated no less favourably than those in England and Wales.

Sarah Boyack: VAT is a reserved matter and the UK Government is therefore responsible for implementation of the European Court of Justice decision that VAT should be levied on road, bridge and tunnel tolls not controlled by public authorities. Treasury Ministers have announced that they will consult toll operators on a scheme to ensure that private motorists will not suffer as a result of the Court’s decision. Details of the scheme have yet to be drawn up but Treasury Ministers have given an assurance that it will be fully funded. The scheme will apply equally to Scotland as it does to other parts of the UK. Scottish Ministers and officials will continue to work closely with Whitehall colleagues to ensure that Scottish interests are fully represented in the development of the proposed scheme.

Dental Health

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to tackle child tooth decay in Glasgow and reduce the figure of 66% of children who have experienced tooth decay and what the comparative figures are for all health board areas outside Glasgow.

Susan Deacon: Greater Glasgow Health Board and Greater Glasgow Primary Dental Care Trust have a number of local measures in place to improve the oral health of children e.g. the Possilpark Pre-5 Programme. In addition, the Scottish Executive published on 18 August An Action Plan for Dental Services in Scotland . The action plan outlines a number of initiatives to improve the dental health of the people of Scotland, particularly children.

  On tooth decay, the comparative figures for health board areas outside Glasgow are:

  


Health Board


Percentage




Argyll & Clyde


59.3




Ayrshire & Arran


48.3




Borders


35.4




Dumfries & Galloway


50.2




Fife


47.2




Forth Valley


52.8




Grampian


43.8




Highland


58.5




Lanarkshire


63.3




Lothian


51.1




Orkney


56.0




Shetland


40.9




Tayside


52.9




Western Isles


62.2




  Source: Scottish Health Boards’ Dental Epidemiological Programme Report of the 1999-2000 Survey of Five-Year-Old Children.

Enterprise

Ms Sandra White (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has received any representations regarding the impact on small businesses run from home of the standard of postal deliveries in Scotland.

Henry McLeish: No representations have been received.

Fisheries

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-8129 by Mr John Home Robertson on 12 July 2000, whether it will commission a study into the impact of fuel costs on the fishing industry.

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what measures it has taken to help the fishing industry to address rising fuel costs.

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it has had any discussions with Her Majesty’s Government specifically regarding the impact of rising fuel costs on the fishing industry.

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to offer any financial assistance to the fishing industry to offset rising fuel costs.

Mr John Home Robertson: Fuel duty and taxes are reserved matters and the Scottish Executive has kept in close dialogue with the UK Government on the effects of rising fuel costs on the industry. The UK fishing industry is already exempted from fuel duty payments, so taxation is not a factor in the increase in fuel costs for fishing vessels.

  Direct subsidies to the industry would almost certainly fall foul of EU state aid regulations. However, we are willing to consider whether fisheries’ structural funds could provide any longer-term incentives to switch to more energy-efficient fishing within the overall package of resources available to the industry.

  UK Fisheries Departments have offered to undertake an examination of fuel use by the UK fishing industry and we will be involved in this work.

Fisheries

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what estimates have been made of (a) the amount and (b) the cost of fuel used by fishing vessels in each of the last three years.

Mr John Home Robertson: There is no comprehensive information available about the amount of fuel used by Scottish fishing vessels. A survey of costs and earnings of UK fishing vessels was undertaken by the Sea Fish Industry Authority in 1997-98. The Fishermen’s Handbook, which is available from the SFIA, contains estimated fuel costs for vessels that were sampled. However, the information is not wholly representative because many vessel owners were unwilling to co-operate with the survey.

Fisheries

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the total expenditure on fuel for vessels operated by the Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency was in each of the last three years.

Mr John Home Robertson: In 1997-98, 1998-99 and 1999-2000, SFPA has spent £654,179, £507,581 and £623,124 respectively for fuel in operating its Fishery Protection Fleet.

Gaelic

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many of those who applied for funding are currently funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for training as Gaelic medium teachers and what the total number of applicants for funding was in each of the last three years.

Peter Peacock: No specific quota of funded places is currently allocated by the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) to courses of initial teacher education (ITE) for the training of teachers in the Gaelic medium. No information is held centrally on the number of applicants or intakes to ITE courses of those training as Gaelic medium teachers.

  The Scottish Executive’s most recent guidance to SHEFC on initial teacher education draws attention to the importance of keeping up the supply of Gaelic medium teachers. SHEFC’s circular letter of February this year allocating funded places for ITE encourages teacher education institutions (TEIs) to continue to respond to the need for teachers able to teach in the Gaelic medium through their intakes to the BEd Primary, Primary PGCE and Secondary PGCE courses.

  More detailed information to inform the SHEFC’s future funding in this area will be gathered in this year’s teacher workforce planning exercise.

Geese

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive how much money the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department has spent on the ongoing survey by Aberdeen University on the impact of geese on Islay.

Sarah Boyack: The work being undertaken on Islay is part of a national study, which seeks to measure the value which society attributes to geese and to quantify the economic costs in terms of agricultural damage. The commissioning of an economic study designed to measure the benefits to society from the presence of geese was a recommendation of the National Goose Forum.

  The total cost of the study is estimated at £81,560 over the two-year lifetime of the project. A total of £22,860 was spent in 1999 and a further £58,700 is projected to be spent this year.

Geese

Mr Jamie McGrigor (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what the cost was to the Scottish Executive Rural Affairs Department of (a) the recent court case between it and the RSPB and (b) the consequent appeal with regard to the granting of licences to two Islay farmers to shoot geese.

Ross Finnie: The cost to the Scottish Executive of the initial court action brought by the RSPB totalled £19,446.25. Following the appeal, which overturned the decision by the Lord Ordinary in favour of Scottish Ministers, liability for the petitioners’ expenses fall to Scottish Ministers. These remain to be determined.

Genetically Modified Crops

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the evidence given to the Rural Affairs Committee by representatives of the Scottish Agricultural Science Agency on 4 July 2000 ( Official Report , col. 1081), whether it has now received any further information from the Canadian Government about the level of sterility of the crop planted at Daviot.

Ross Finnie: Investigations by the Canadian authorities are continuing and we still await definitive information. The Scottish Executive’s concern at this delay is shared by the UK Government which has sought recently from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency a progress report on its investigations into the circumstances that gave rise to the contamination of the Hyola rapeseed.

Justice

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S1W-6705 by Mr Jim Wallace on 24 May 2000, whether any existing legislation, other than road traffic legislation, would enable failure to report to the police any injury to cats through road accidents to be treated as a criminal offence, or whether it plans to introduce new or subordinate legislation to achieve this effect.

Mr Jim Wallace: Failure to report such injuries to cats is not a criminal offence. We have no plans to make it an offence.

Justice

Richard Lochhead (North-East Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many people have been convicted of drug dealing offences in each of the last three years.

Mr Jim Wallace: The available information on persons convicted of drug offences in Scotland is given in the following table:

  Persons convicted in Scottish courts of drugs offences, 1996-1998

  


Type of drugs offence1


1996


1997


1998




Possession with intent to supply


1,383


1,490


1,529




Possession


4,634


5,384


5,291




Other2


166


131


98




Total


6,183


7,005


6,918




  Notes:

  1. The main offence for which the offender was convicted.

  2. Includes illegal importation, production, manufacture or cultivation of drugs, money laundering related offences and other drug offences.

Local Government

Dr Winnie Ewing (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will give an assurance that, if it brings forward legislation providing for proportional representation to be introduced for local government elections and the legislation is passed, it will be implemented at the first available opportunity.

Mr Frank McAveety: The Executive announced on 27 June 2000, in question S1W-8280, how it will take forward its consideration of the recommendations of the Renewing Local Democracy Working Group. The Executive will consider implementation as part of its wider consideration of the electoral system for local government and will announce its decision on these matters in due course.

Prison Service

Dorothy-Grace Elder (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many prisoners were drug tested in prison in each year from 1990 to 1999, how many have been tested to date in 2000 and how many tested positive in these periods.

Mr Jim Wallace: I have asked Tony Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service to respond. His response is as follows:

  Drug test results as a consequence of clinical and treatment programme testing are not collected centrally. A national drugs in urine testing programme began in 1996, and the results for drugs of abuse are as follows:

  


Year


Number Tested


Positive for drugs 
of abuse


%




1996


2,437


935


38




1997


12,310


4,002


33




1998


14,139


4,081


29




1999


16,717


3,738


22




2000 (results recorded to 14 September)


9,198


2,280


25

Transport

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S1W-9005 and S1O-2178 by Sarah Boyack and Alasdair Morrison on 31 August 2000 and 7 September 2000 respectively, why the number of grants made under the Energy Savings Trust’s Powershift programme since 1997 for conversion of motor vehicles to use liquid petroleum gas was stated to be 96 in the answer to S1W-9005 and 390 in the answer to S1O-2178 and what the correct figure is.

Sarah Boyack: The figure of 96 quoted in reply to question S1W-9005 related to the number of grants for conversion of motor vehicles to LPG since 1997, whereas the figure of 390 in question S1O-2178 relates to the number of vehicles converted in that period. The first answer made it clear that some grants are awarded for multiple vehicle conversions or purchases, for example to fleet operators.

Transport

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will list the addresses of all establishments which are authorised or otherwise permitted to carry out conversion work for motor vehicles to use liquid petroleum gas under the Energy Savings Trust’s Powershift programme.

Sarah Boyack: A list of converters can be found on the Powershift website at www.est-powershift.org.uk/.

Transport

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive which makes and models of motor vehicle are eligible for a grant for conversion to use liquid petroleum gas under the Energy Savings Trust’s Powershift programme and, of these, which qualify for a grant of (a) 75%, (b) 60% and (c) 40% of conversion costs.

Sarah Boyack: There are over 1,000 combinations of vehicle makes/models/conversions available for conversion to LPG, CNG and LNG. The amount of grant depends on the emission reduction produced by the conversion and vehicle model combination. Details can be accessed on the Powershift website, the address of which is www.est-powershift.org.uk/.

World Trade Organisation

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive,  further to the answer to question S1W-4862 by Henry McLeish on 15 March 2000, which Ministers have been in contact with the Department of Trade and Industry regarding issues arising from the activities of the World Trade Organisation and their effect on the responsibilities of the Scottish Executive since 1 July 1999, and whether it will detail which Minister has been in contact and when the contact took place.

Henry McLeish: The Scottish Executive has been in regular contact with the Department of Trade and Industry since July 1999, both at ministerial and official level, on a range of issues including those arising from the World Trade Organisation.